Bolt figures Lateline fell for a pretty seedy Labor party trick when they aired carefully edited video of Tony Abbott revealing, at a public meeting held during the week, that a great swathe of workers "protections" had been swept away by WorkChoices. It was Tony Abbott speaking the truth.

But the full, unedited video shows Abbott explaining his point in more detail, while making the exact same point. However, the video aired by Lateline on Thursday night had been slickened into a fast soundbite that played on all TV networks and most radio news bulletins throughout Friday. A flood of stories claimed Abbott had admitted WorkChoices robbed workers of once valued protections (he did), and that he said if you don't like your job, then quit.

Another full day of Howard and Abbott forced onto the defensive, and seen nervously answering questions about how WorkChoices is screwing workers. Not how either would have wanted, or planned, to spend the day.

And all this was on top of the auditor general's report which revealed Howard & Friends had rorted the taxpayers of hundreds of millions of dollars in 2004 for pet projects in electorates where they were begging or paying for votes. Howard was left mumbling that he "hadn't been briefed on the report." Ha!

In all, an absolutely nightmarish day for Coalition, which must have had Howard wondering if someone had slipped hallucinogens into his breakfast eggs.

The woman who may well be deputy prime minister soon, Julia Gillard, fired back with :

"What appears on that tape is what Mr Abbott said. There has been nothing done to that tape, it appears as Mr Abbott said it, with the words coming out of his mouth that he said and he meant."

Which is true enough. No matter how the video is sliced and diced, Abbott said what he said. The only context is that Abbott and Bolt hate the way it played to the public.

A crude, dirty trick dreamed up by Labor and given life by Lateline?

As crude a dirty trick as the 'video scandal' orchestrated by Liberal attack dogs (hmm, Tony Abbott?) and a appallingly pliant media during the 2004 campaign, where Mark Latham spent endless days denying there was a virtual pornographic bucks night video of him floating around.

There was no video. It was simply a sleazy smear campaign originating in Crikey, and then widely promoted, discussed and debated by Andrew Bolt's media friends and colleagues.

Perhaps Andrew Bolt is more upset by the fact that the edited Abbott video got so much play in the media and was so effective in ramming home Labor's mantra that workers are far worse off under WorkChoices?